I know, I know, most of you hate Arenas. I've been writing for WoW Insider -- ahem, I mean WoW.com -- long enough to know that you guys probably aren't the most avid of PvP players. But the fun thing about it is that at least I'm not preaching to the choir, right? Anyway, I have to admit that I've gotten pretty tired of Arenas myself. Aside from two to three weeks worth of games in Season 5, I skipped the season altogether, unhappy with the balance then and the constantly changing rating and matchmaking system.

That wasn't even the heart of it, really. In the past seasons where I'd had the most success, I played with particular classes and specs that were viable in that season's environment. More importantly, I teamed up with players who were focused on PvP and were expectedly competent at it. The downside was that our success as a team was proportional to my loathing of the players on my team, particularly our team leader who was prone to excessive nerd rage and finger pointing. It sometimes happens that the best PvP players aren't necessarily your friends, and working together towards high ratings is sometimes a marriage of convenience. At a certain point when the stakes were extremely high, where wins would net us measly gains and losses would tank us badly enough for us to lose titles, Arenas became more stressful than fun.

Forum post of the day: The end of big guilds - Sat, 23 May 2009 18:00:00 ESTOldmaveric of Azgalor posed the question on the General Discussion Forum: are Big guilds on their way out due to easy WoW? He suggested that easier content on 10 man raids and regular content nerfs has led to the breakdown of some of the top guilds and caused players to quit the game.

Savvage of Spinebreaker quickly responded that big guilds have their place, but "People can now play in closer more tightly-knit groups..." For many players, raiding offers sufficient challenge while being more enjoyable than it once was. The raiding experience is not only more accessible, but also more fun. Smaller guilds can afford to be more selective of the online personalities of their membership, while still being able to to make progress.

Apparently, the next major patch (I'm guess it will be patch 3.2) will be seeing more tweaks to Death Knights, at the least to get dual wielding viable again. There's no word on what form this tweaking will take, which is to be expected. Balancing Dual Wielding and Two handed weapons has always been a tricky to near-impossible for other classes, so the skeptical part of me still wonders if it's possible.

Of course, it could also be the two-handed weapon partisan in me speaking as well. Any basic solution such as creating a two-weapon strike seems like it could leave two-handed Death Knights out in the cold, at least for DPS. Still, we have that earlier mention of possible dual-wield dedicated tree, so who knows how extensively they'll revamp whichever one they choose to allow dual wield optimization. We do already have some 3.2 feature announcements, though, so who knows, maybe class change information is up next. We'll keep you posted.

There's a chance we may all be in the gravest peril -- and that's the excuse I'm going to give for nearly no one on the team playing World of Warcraft this weekend. So what's the peril today? Mr. Rossi explains it better than I:

Matthew Rossi: I'm hunting down an ancient Egyptian Vizier named Hamenthotep. Seems he's trying to find some sort of ancient scrolls called the "Ziebart Codex" that will allow him to harness the power of some sort of ancient primal diety named "Izzu Tahuti" or some such. I don't actually read Demotic. Anyway, in order to find the codex he apparently made use of an old Lemurian ritual site in the Andes and sent forth Peruvian Mummies to possess all the descendants of the original writer of the Codex, Ziebart Dulkarnizen (The Two Horned Ziebart) an ancient and terrible black wizard. So far I haven't had any luck finding any of the descendants. They're masters of subtlety and stealth, it seems, all connected to an order of Cathars who disappeared during Innocent III's attempt to suppress the Albigensian Heresy. I'm not sure if they're Ophists or not, but until I find one of the last living Ziebarts, all of earth is in grave danger from Hamenthotep and his strange, black garbed ally with the hunting horn. I may also run Ulduar.

Mike Schramm: Wait -- isn't Alex named Ziebart? He could be the key to the Codex! Oh no wait I think he's Zibert. Never mind.

She's gone from suck to blow! Morgwatt of <Two Silvers for Charon> on Bronzebeard recently experienced one of the natural hazards of the Eastern Plaguelands -- a giant maggot attack. "While meditating upon a recent adventure in EPL, I was reminded as to why it is a good idea to do these things in the safety of an inn," he wrote. I'll also noted that Morgwatt's 2v2 team name is "The Lee Atwaters", which is one of the most awesome names I've seen in a long while.

Do you have any unusual, beautiful or interesting World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We'd love to see them on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!

Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. Please include the word "Azeroth" in your post so it does not get swept into the spam bin. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing -- use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards, gold seller ads, or pictures of the Ninja Turtles in Dalaran.

It's been a couple of days since our big makeover and things seem to have gone down quite well. We've had loads of comments (indeed Alex Z is currently recovering from being Tech Support Guy after fielding bug reports for a day straight) and the new-look has gone down quite well. Of course, this isn't the first time we've had a new look but this time it's not just a cosmetic revamp. I like to think of WoW.com as WoW Insider meets Facebook with a little of Livejournal thrown in for good measure, we're not just a site, we're a community. Cliched, okay, you got me there.

Anyway now you folks have had a couple of days to get used to the changes, what do you think of our new look and, more importantly, all the cool features? Are there any you'd like implimented in the future? Have we missed something out?

The Argent Coliseum: Does this mean a raid and a instance will be in there?

Yes, there will be a 5-player version, then a 10/25-player version. The bosses will be different for the two versions. Think Ring of Blood or Amphitheater of Anguish, but more epic.

The new Battleground (Isle of Conquest): So, it's WG combined with AB?

If anything, Wintergrasp combined with Alterac Valley with a few more twists.

Do you really think Ulduar achievements will last a year? Instances become stale after 6 months even with achievements. Yea 3.2 won't be till later this year and by then Ulduar will have been played to death and people will want something fun and new to do and not some small joke instance since we won't see Icecrown till April/May next year probably.

Would it help if I told you that your presumed timelines are way too inflated? :)

I was expecting most of this information, and I'm glad that my suspicions that the Coliseum would be a Ring of Blood-style event were confirmed. This isn't really an avenue Blizzard has used for a raid before. The hinting that 3.2 will come a lot sooner than we think is also comforting -- since it means that 3.3 and Icecrown are even closer.

I'll have a speculation post about what we can expect in the Coliseum soon. Until then, keep your eyes peeled -- we'll update you as soon as we get any more news!

Playing the role of Adam Zibbert tonight will be the Michael Sacco. There will be a brief intermission between acts.

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Zibbert will be your host today.

You know the drill! LET'S GET US SOME QUESTIONS ANSWERED.

Bearkub asked...

My main is a lvl 80 paladin (holy/prot), gold is not an issue, and I have everything I could want off the Wintergrasp PVP vendor/npc. My alt is a level 70 hunter (hilarity ensues). Is it worth it to spend 200 stonekeeper's shards to buy the +10% XP bonus shoulders? Or would those shards be better spent on something I can sell for gold (the non-bound pvp meta-gems, for example)? Is there something to spend the shards on that I'm unaware of? I imagine they're worth it on a lvl 58 DK alt, but I'm not sure what the "cost/benefit" cut-off is.

Heirloom items are pretty great, in my experience, especially the shoulders. With 3.1, they also grant 10% extra quest experience on top of mob XP, which is a lot -- especially given that most of your XP earned while going from 70-80 is going to be quest XP. It, essentially, takes a flat 10% off of your leveling time, sometimes more. And, when you're done with it, you can send it to another alt, even if they can't wear that specific armor type, because the item will automatically become the highest possible armor type for that specific character.

I'd say it's worth the purchase, but it's a personal choice. Just remember you can get gold back at any time, but leveling time isn't something you can recoup.

Embellished with a figure reaching toward a swan. This is a grey piece of vendor trash, probably the worst quality item we've ever featured here.

Wait a minute Mike, I can hear you saying, this is supposed to be Phat Loot Phriday. Why are you showing us a piece of vendor junk? Because, my friends, in the eyes of the vendors, this little bell is worth more than the Warglaives of Azzinoth combined (and you could even throw in Thori'dal, too). Yes, this little bell sells to vendors for... wait for it... 100g.

WoW Insider Show special video edition live tomorrow - Fri, 22 May 2009 18:00:00 ESTThe day has arrived. A little while ago, we challenged you fans to get us over 9000 Twitter followers, and somehow, some way, you delivered. So now we have to keep our promises -- tomorrow, the WoW Insider Show, which has only ever been an audio podcast, will include video with our live feed, and you'll be able to see the faces of all your favorite bloggers (for better or worse). Turpster and I will be dressed in our finest threads, we'll be toasting champagne (so bring your own if you want to toast with us, 21+ please), and we'll host a cavalcade of bloggers and friends of the show on live video. We've got some surprises planned, and hopefully Ustream will hold up under the strain -- whatever happens, it'll surely be wild.

The show begins our Ustream page at May 23, 2009 3:30 PM EDT , or you can jump after the break to see an embedded feed. The audio archive of the show will appear here on Monday, and we'll have a video version on Ustream, but unfortunately Ustream will only save one video stream -- mine. So if you want to see Turpster and our guests on video, someone in the live audience might have to Fraps it out. And directly after the show, we'll be spending some time on Zangarmarsh (It Came From the Blog is our guild over there on Horde side, and I'll be hanging out and dueling Peggle if you want to stop by).

Whew. It will be memorable, I can guarantee that. We'll also talk a little bit of Warcraft, and of course we'll talk about the new WoW.com and what it means for the podcast as well. We'll see you (and by see you, I mean you'll actually see us) tomorrow afternoon.

I don't play my shaman in a melee role in raids right now, because I basically don't have the gear for it. My resto set's a lot better so that's what I go as, but that only means I often notice how difficult it is to keep enhancement shamans on their feet. There are several possible culprits for the disparity, although in most cases I believe the killer to be aoe damage, so wearing mail really isn't the issue: rogues aren't nearly as hard to keep up as shamans, for instance, because rogues have cooldowns and abilities that allow them to avoid or escape damage. (If you've ever seen a rogue go sprinting through several mines on a Mimiron kill you'll know what I mean.) No, excepting those giant whirlwinding maniacs in Razorscale and Thorim, what's generally killing shamans in melee is AoE damage, and the problem here is twofold in my experience.

Most enhancement shamans who are not in Tier gear are wearing hunter mail, which is not tuned to higher stamina values. Even shaman tier gear lacks in stamina, however.

In order to take talents that would reduce incoming damage, shamans are asked to not take talents that would allow them to produce meaningful DPS.

The new, rapid pace of Blizzard development continues as the Under Development page let slip that the new Battleground will be called the Isle of Conquest. We'd known for a while now that the next major content patch, Patch 3.2, would have a new Battleground, there were little details beyond that. For a while, there was some speculation that the abandoned development in Azshara would be revisited, but it looks like this is an entirely new Battleground that implements more siege weapons and vehicles.

Even though vehicle combat has gotten fairly mixed reviews, we know for a fact that it works rather well in PvP implementations such as Lake Wintergrasp and Strand of the Ancients. Wintergrasp, in particular, has been so popular that it has created all sorts of problems for Blizzard, leading to the development team finding ways to actually reduce the number of people playing in it. If Wintergrasp is any indication, the Isle of Conquest should be incredibly fun, as well. The key word here is "large-scale", which hopefully indicates a return to Alterac Valley-level epic battles.

Bornakk just announced on the forums that Jewelcrafters are about to see a new nerf, and as a result, people are already beginning to weigh the benefits of switching to a different profession for min-maxing, or working out how they are going to re-itemize their gear.

Bornakk:In the next major content patch we will be removing the prismatic quality of the jewelcrafter-only Dragon's Eye gems. Like other gems, they will have to match the socket color to receive a socket bonus. When this change occurs, players with qualifying jewelcrafting skill will be provided a yet to be determined amount of Dalaran Jewelecrafter Tokens as compensation.

This probably won't be enough to entice players to drop the profession, but it is a bit of a blow. Stratfu points out that because Mage T8 is equipped primarily with yellow and blue sockets, the only way to actually meet socket bonus requirements will be to use sub-par gems.

The JC-only Runed Dragon's Eye offers +32 spell power, and currently fits into any socket, conforming to meet the necessary color requirements. This is compared to the +19 spell power that the rest of us folks get from Runed Scarlet Rubies. While Jewelcrafters will still be able to use these gems, they won't be able to stick them just anywhere.

We're going to present a screenshot of the changes from the Under Development page after the jump, but just to make sure your appetites are whetted, so to speak (or type, I'm not actually talking) here's a detail: there will be a new battleground called the Isle of Conquest, a large scale siege between the Horde and the Alliance.

An official server for South Africa - Fri, 22 May 2009 15:00:00 ESTHere's an interesting post from what looks like a site in Zaire wondering if Blizzard will ever bring World of Warcraft to South Africa. It's true -- we all take it for granted that here in North America and Europe, the game is available, but in many parts of the world, it's not. And apparently there's a market in a place like South Africa -- Blizzard says they have about five to seven thousand players down there already (we'd assume they're playing on EU or US servers), and that probably doesn't count any of the players on private servers, which could be as many as 20,000.

iGame is a division of an ISP called iBurst down there, and they say they're prepared to run an official server (within 24 hours' notice!) if Blizzard gives the OK, but Blizzard has told them that they need at least 40,000 players in the area to make it worth running an official server.

There's another option called a "peering" server, which apparently does hook up to Blizzard's servers, but uses local connections and networks to make things a little faster. But again, Blizzard needs to assent to that, and it seems like they're hesitant at the moment.

Oceanic realms have had issues for a long time, but at least the players there do have a chunk of servers dedicated to them. Are there any other major places in the world that don't have official WoW support yet? South America? India?

Old Azeroth through rose-colored glasses - Fri, 22 May 2009 13:00:00 ESTSometimes denial works for you, and I think that's why I like this forum thread so much. It's full of nostalgia for a simpler time, when PvP meant going to Southshore and murdering some Alliance, when the encounters in Molten Core were the most epic thing in the game, and speaking of epics, when seeing a player outfitted with all purples meant that they'd be raiding for weeks with 39 other people. This thread willingly looks back and sees things not as they were, but as we remember them: super fun, refreshing, and completely empty of the problems and quibbles we have to deal with today.

Of course, Azeroth's past wasn't really like that. It was hell organizing 40 people to do one boss, much less a whole night of raiding, and if the organization didn't get you, the server lag and disconnects would. Southshore and Crossroads PvP made for great stories, but in actuality, it was really just a zerg fest, and no one actually won, it was really just everyone throwing away their nights because there was nothing better to do. And epics -- well, it was actually pretty cool when epic gear meant something. But boy was it disappointing when you went whole weeks of raiding without getting any loot at all, without even a Badge of Justice for your efforts. Or when you had to disenchant a tier piece because the Paladin set dropped yet again.

Do we want to go back to those days? Probably not -- while there are definitely some good things about them, there were all kinds of issues that have since been solved (and that many of the nostalgists tend to forget about). But every once in a while, it's nice to look back through rose-colored glasses and remember when.

Reader Ted T. asked for a good place to get started with Oxhorn videos. That's a really tough call, because Oxhorn's created so many different movies. But, I guess my favorite Oxhorn piece is the Oxhorn Brand Medley. (Moo Money actually first covered it about a year ago.)

Not only does it combine everything there is to love about Oxhorn machinima, it also expands his music in some interesting ways. When my fiancee and I first saw it, we spent all weekend singing its chorus over and over and over.

The chorus seems simple, but is actually rather difficult to belt out in tune and in time. "LOLOMGWTGDAIRYQUEEN" flies across the screen to help you know what Oxhorn's singing, but getting it down corectly and reliably can be a challenge. The "Oxhorn Brand Medley" revisits and tips its hat to some of his best songs, but still manages to blend them all together in a convincing way.

While it might help if you're familiar with Oxhorn's many videos, you definitely don't need to have seen them to enjoy the video. Take a few minutes, check it out, and see what you think.

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.Previously on Moviewatch

That's right, when a player suggests that maybe a zeppelin should be flying around the Tauren city of Thunderbluff, Kisirani says only, "Okay." So, a zeppelin is coming to Thunderbluff? Certainly seems that way.

Makes a lot of sense -- Tauren originally had Plainsrunning, and if you've ever made that jaunt through their starting area, you'll know just how many plains you have to run across (of course, they didn't actually get it until level 40, so it wouldn't have helped them much there anyway, but still -- it's a run). And while you can pretty quickly fly into TB from Orgrimmar, it wouldn't hurt to have another point of departure. Kisirani doesn't say where the zepp will go, but maybe a flght up to Northrend wouldn't be out of the question either.

Wow, we got all that from "Okay." Behold the power of Kisirani! Maybe it doesn't mean there's a zepp on the way, but if that's the case we'd be happy with just a cow-tapult.

Not a spelling error! Listen to Nick Cave! Anyway, Fyve of <Obsydian> on Aerie Peak-EU has decided to be a gallant lady and hold her guildmate Moosemaiden's hand through the dangerous Malygos fight. Unfortunately, it looks like both of them have met an early demise, together forever in death. Or, for a more cynical opinion, maybe the blue drake mount dropped and Fyve decided that her Nesingwary 4000 was a better tool for handling loot disputes than DKP.

Do you have any unusual, beautiful or interesting World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We'd love to see them on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!

Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. Please include the word "Azeroth" in your post so it does not get swept into the spam bin. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing -- use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards, gold seller ads, or pictures of the Ninja Turtles in Dalaran.

One of the things I never forgot in the run-up to patch 2.3 was seeing the photo above from MMO Champion. This was before the Cenarion War Hippogryph went live, and it was the faction's new (albeit expensive) reward for reaching exalted. Boubouille, as so often happens, datamined a bit more than what Blizzard actually permitted to go live, and the skin at the top left was what wound up being the Cenarion Expedition's flying mount. Sprinting for the CE quartermaster when the patch hit and discovering that that was the only model available (and that it couldn't walk) was a bit of a let-down, to the point where I decided to wait on buying the mount in the forlorn hopes that the other mount colors and animations would go live. Quoth the female Tauren, moo hoo hoo.

Since then it's become apparent that the hippogryph at top right became the Argent Hippogryph (score!) and the one at bottom left is now the Silver Covenant Hippogryph. That some of the Tournament daily quests award Silver Covenant/Sunreaver reputation makes me suspicious that the hippogryph and Sunreaver dragonhawk are eventually going to be rep mounts. That still leaves two hippogryph skins "left over," and you've got wonder if they're going into the game -- and if so, in what capacity. EIther way, there aren't words to describe my happiness at not being consigned to the ugliness of a wyvern (the airborne version of Tauren cat form) forever. I'll grant that my main is a Druid so I had a ready escape anyway (and I thank thee daily, Blizzard, for thy boon of total win in the guise of swift flight form), but sometimes a girl likes options.

If there's one thing I've learned in the time I've spent playing WoW, it's that people are serious about the cute (and useless) tagalong polygonal pals we call non-combat pets. Blizzard apparently likes them too, since we got ten new ones with the launch of 3.1, as well as achievements to give youeven moreof them for hitting pet-number milestones. There are enough pets for you to fill every bag slot with them, and enough people who collect 'em to warrant pet toy vendors and whole websites dedicated to 'em.

But I'm not satisfied! In fact, I'll never be satisfied -- not until I get a non-combat Talbaby pet. I even did Blizzard the favor of designing it. See? Who wouldn't want that adorable ungulate following them around? NO ONE. THAT'S WHO.

How about you guys? Is there a specific type of non-combat pet, brand-new model or tiny version of an in-game model alike, you'd love to see? Is there a baby version of some fearsome beast you've scarcely lived without this whole time?

WoW.com readers, it's up to you to decide the fate of Turpen the Gnome Warlock with Choose My Adventure. Help test the site's new features by participating in this event, casting your vote toward the many aspects of Turpen and following his exploits on Alex Ziebart's WoW.com profile!

The polls are closed and the votes have been tallied. The audience has decided that for this little experiment, I am going to play a Gnome Warlock while I track my misadventures on my profile. As mentioned in the original post, most of the decisions regarding this character's growth will be made by you, our readers. I'll give weekly updates on my progress via the blog here, but so much more will be happening over on my profile. I've already started a photo album which will contain screenshots of my little 'lock as he goes from level 1 to level 80.

I've already rolled the character and I've named him Turpen, in homage to a certain Englishman on the WoW.com team. I've decided to play a male, because... well, I usually play female characters as you can see on my character list. Let's be different this time around! However, dear readers, there is still more for you to decide. There are three polls behind the cut below. Professions and my talent tree.

Kebina Trudough here, offering you the best gold making secrets they don't want you to know about! I was like you once, poor and homely, before I discovered my patented system. Now you too can fill your pockets with the good stuff without ever breaking a sweat! Why spend all your time toiling when you could be vacationing in the Hot Springs? I'm not offering these tips for 100 gold, or 90 gold, or even 50 gold! No, not even 20 gold! My system is yours for FREE! Satisfaction guaranteed or I'll give you a full refund (handling charges may apply).

Saronite translates into easy WoW gold, and can be farmed in massive quantities in Sholazar Basin, Icecrown and Storm Peaks. Wintergrasp is also a great place to farm it, despite being ground-bound.

If you cannot fly yet, I highly recommend Sholazar Basin. Follow the rivers, run around the pillars, and circle the province perimeter. In fact, pretty much anywhere you go, you will find saronite, and the mobs are mid-seventies, unlike the heavy hitters in Icecrown.

As for Storm Peaks, make sure to fly up where you would think you have no business being. Giant cliff walls that stretch for miles and random peaks may be boring, but they do contain nodes.

An hour could easily grant you a few hundred ore. Before you smelt it, check your AH prices for ore versus bars. Because two ore go into a bar, you will want to smelt your ore into bars to sell if one ore is worth less than half of one bar. Otherwise, sell the ore! Jewelcrafters will buy it up for prospecting.

Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW Insider's series of fantasy death matches. This season's bosses come from the five-man instances of Wrath of the Lich King.

It's an Utgarde mashup in this week's Two Bosses Enter deathmatch, as Dalronn the Controller and Skarvald the Constructor from Utgarde Keep meet up with Skadi the Ruthless in Utgarde Pinnacle. That's right: this week's battle will take place on Skadi's territory in Utgarde Pinnacle.

Now before you throw your hands up exclaiming how much of a whip Skadi can be - we're going to balance this fight. This all scales. Assume that the foes share similar levels, health pools and a comparative overall damage output. We'll also assume that there are not so many Frost Vrykul assisting Skadi that his opponents find themselves overwhelmed early in the battle. Let's assume that Dalronn and Skarvald make it about three-quarters of the way through the gauntlet before the first of them gets killed. (It goes without saying that we won't allow Dalronn and Skarvald to run past the gauntlet -- don't try it!)

Most important, don't get caught up in actual game mechanics or what full groups of real players might do in each encounter. Focus your debate on the three S's -- style, story and scale -- and the flavor of each villain's battle style. What do you think would happen if these three met in battle? Tell us what goes down in the comments below, and cast your vote for who you think is left standing at the end.

Unfortunately, posts aren't coming too often, and it seems like Dr. Amalea -- who for some reason refers to himself in the third person at times -- understandably has other things to do besides keeping a blog about World of Warcraft and psychology. But maybe if we send them a little traffic, we can convince him to keep it up regularly, as what's there now makes for some really interesting reading. It's really interesting that a lot of the stuff we're dealing with the game now -- forming PuGs, guild drama, even loot distribution, has all been studied by psychologists for years and years before World of Warcraft ever existed.

Choose my adventure with WoW.com profiles - Thu, 21 May 2009 18:00:00 ESTWe're all still slaving away on WoW.com, finding bugs and filing feedback. To help that process along, we're going to try a little experiment. I'm going to level a character from level 1 to level 80, and all of it will be documented on my WoW.com profile. The hook is that you guys are going to decide most aspects of this character, such as race, class, and talent spec.

Such things will be determined largely via polls right here on the front page of WoW.com, where I'll be giving weekly updates on my progress along with what I've learned about the class and the world and any other observations I might have. If you want a little more detail on the process such as where I'm going, what I've done, and any other little notes I make via the Adventurer's Note feature, you can follow that on my profile. If you don't dig our profiles portion of the site, hey, no problem. You'll still get weekly updates right here on the blog until I'm level 80.

There are two polls: Race and Class. I will play whichever choices are the most popular. If the chosen race can't actually be the chosen class, I'm going to go with whatever is the most popular class that I can actually play as that race. The polls are below, and there's a little more information behind the cut underneath them.

Update: Polls will remain open so those who voted can still see the results, but as of May 22nd, Gnome Warlock won the polls and the adventures have begun.

Link to the launcher text - Thu, 21 May 2009 17:00:00 ESTJust a quick tip for those of who may be stranded at work and thinking about World of Warcraft (which, during the day, is probably all of you?) I've never seen a link to this page (though we've snuck it in some maintenance posts before), but fortunately the good folks at the WoW LJ community have spotlighted it: Blizzard's welcome screen notice is just a text page online, and it's publicly available. So even if you can't load up the WoW client, you can still keep track of realm downtime on maintenance days, or just keep an eye on what Blizzard is posting about lately.

It's a little thing (and truthfully, there's probably not much there that you really need to know anyway -- if you're away from a WoW client, obviously you can't log in even if your realm is back up). But you never know, someday when you're thinking about World of Warcraft, far afield of your installation, and really need to know what Blizzard has to tell you, it could come in handy. Definitely earned a place in my bookmarks, just in case.

And having it in quick and easy online text form means we can script it to go elsewhere, right? Anyone want to try hooking a Twitter account up to this thing?

A while back I wrote a short post pointing out to the community that now is a pretty ripe time to see how Retribution can be improved. Ghostcrawler and the devs have taken an interesting direction with the Retribution tree, and although they've recently mentioned that there will no longer be big changes throughout Wrath of the Lich King, it's still a good time to examine the spec. It's come a long way since the launch of the game and 'lolret' is arguably a term now only used in spite and no longer with genuine ridicule. Ridicule and some fear and loathing, maybe, but no longer just ridicule.

Despite the statement that there'll be fewer changes to classes in the foreseeable future, Ghostcrawler did say "there will be some (changes)" in addition to "tweak(ing) numbers up and down as needed". So don't despair, Fury Warriors, you'll be swinging those two-handers once again in glory one of these days. I'm also dead certain that Paladin tweaks aren't quite done. For one thing, we know that Crusader Strike is in line for some coolification. Another is that Exorcism was quickly hotfixed not to work on player targets as precursor to what Ghostcrawler calls "a little more tweaking" to the class. So while I asked the community to share their thoughts on how to improve Retribution, it's taken me much, much longer to ruminate. Humor me for today as I go share my own thoughts on the matter.

One of the things that keeps messing with my head as we progress into Ulduar is, loot actually drops here. Gear that I want and, even better, that I actually get. I still look back with horror at our weekly Naxx clears and how, every single week, we could kill everything in sight only to have no weapons drop at all. Now, the danger of talking about Ulduar gear is that it keeps changing. Older items get revamped and neweritems get discovered. This is the nature of the beast, so to speak, all you can really do is keep going.

As an addendum to last week's post about DPS warriors, I've now switched to fury full time for DPS. My numbers are better now than they were as arms (most likely due to my greater sympathy for the spec and my upgraded dual wield set, 2 Rune Edges) and I'm happier. I do find it somewhat galling that I need two weapons better than a Betrayer of Humanity just to break even with an arms spec that used Sword Specialization, possibly the worst choice for arms DPS in PvE right now. I'm still not quite where I should be in relation to other melee hybrids (after all, their gear is improving too) but once fury gets its incoming buffs I should be very competitive with DK's and Druids and Retribution Paladins. (Now all we need is for shamans to get a health buff.)

Rather than pile on more or changed weapons which we'll probably have to go back and update, this week I figured we'd talk about our Tier 8 sets from 10 and 25 man. We'll begin with the Valorous (10 man) Siegebreaker Battlegear and the Valorous (25 man) Dreadnaught Battlegear, then compare the Conqueror to the 25 Dreadnaught. I'm not going to compare the Heroes Dreadnaught because it's never even a question of an upgrade at that point.

Equipment manager and dual talents won't mix - Thu, 21 May 2009 14:00:00 ESTNow, I was under the impression that Blizzard eventually wanted to combine the dual specs and equipment manager features -- they were taking their sweet time making sure it was exactly right, but eventually when you switched specs, you'd be able to switch into the gear you wanted at the same time. But apparently that's not the case: the lovely Nethaera over on the forums says that no, there are no plans to connect the two. They believe that many people will want to change specs and gear at different times, so you'll still have to press two buttons if you just have two gear sets for two specs.

Fortunately, that functionality is filled in very well with addons, and Eliah did a nice writeup last month of how to do it with a few of the available addons out there. Which is probably why Blizzard isn't doing it -- we've heard at the BlizzCon UI panel that they're more than happy to let addon authors fill in the extra functionality that they believe only a few players are looking for. And as you can see in the thread, there are macros that will tie them together as well.

Better for Blizzard to get to work on something else than put together functionality that those who really need can already find. But yes, if you're waiting for an official solution to switching gear and specs at the same time, look elsewhere.

Yeah, we all know that Oculus kinda sucks, but now we've got some numbers on it -- or, more accurately, Flyv does. One of my feral Druid colleagues has been examining Armory data on completion rates of Wrath heroics (and incidentally took a peek at how long it takes for the average person to go from dinging 80 to a full Naxx clear). The numbers aren't too surprising: heroics that correspond to the earliest Wrath "regular" dungeons -- Violet Hold, Utgarde Keep, and the Nexus -- are far and away the most-completed heroics. Oculus -- and to a lesser extent, Ahn'kahet and Halls of Stone -- languish at 40, 51, and 58% completion rates respectively.

Halls of Stone surprises me somewhat, as I really didn't think it was a difficult heroic (outside of running a Druid tank on the Brann Bronzebeard event), but Ahn'kahet is universally cited amongst tanks and healers for LOS issues and nasty damage. And Oculus...well, we've talked about Oculus here before. I still think the concept of the dungeon itself is fantastic, but the moment that one or two embarrassed people in your group admit that it's their first time on the drakes, you know you're in for a long and ugly run.

I hope Flyv revisits this data at some point, because I'd love to see how the numbers change over the course of Wrath. With achievements introduced only as BC was ending, we don't really have a good look at how dungeon popularity and completion rates evolved there, and I think the numbers say a lot about the content players prioritize when they get a toon (or multiple toons) to the level cap.

Dude. Wait, what? I think I got a contact high from watching this trippy video. This is Green Tambourine by Demachic. It seems like we've missed covering it before now, which is a shame. As the story goes, a bored Blood Elf finds a trippy hookah hanging around, and decides to try it out. He's looking to break that boredom and day-to-day life he leads in Silvermoon.

While it might be my inner hippy speaking out, I found this video absolutely gorgeous. The colors are vibrant and beautiful, and Demachic's flair for scenery sets up a great context for the music. All the characters really fit in that 60s and 70s psychadelic genre, and the whole thing just comes together wonderfully.

The song was originally by the Lemon Pipers, and it actually reached #1 on the charts in 1968. Demachic's video is a great homage to the song.

Thanks to Stephen for the tip!

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.Previously on Moviewatch

Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW Insider's series of fantasy death matches. This season's bosses come from the five-man instances of Wrath of the Lich King.

Mage-Lord Urom (the Oculus) found himself buffeted right off the playing field in a tightly contested match against Xevozz of the Violet Hold. Xevozz and his Ethereal Spheres dogged the Mage-Lord from platform to platform, dropping him despite Urom's horde of minions and evasive ways.

Reader opinion was fairly close on this deathmatch. Siaperas gave props to the Mage-Lord's efforts. "While I think Xevozz is much cooler than the mage lord, I'd have to give this battle to the Mage-Lord," he explained. "My impression of Xevozz is that he's so overconfident, he walks towards his opponents, and the way we've always beaten him was by kiting him. The Mage-Lord is a master at kiting. The entire fight is him kiting the player. Xevozz will kill the adds, but slowly it'll wear him down, and the Mage-Lord is much too mobile for him in a stand alone fight. Sure, Xevozz could try to teleport the Mage-Lord into his spheres, but the Mage-Lord is just going to teleport back out."

Kinka of Spinebreaker posts a question that I haven't seen anyone ask for a while; does the Horde really have more faction pride? Various reasons are this feeling are offered, from the lack of a strong Alliance-side leader (with Varian Wrynn feeling like a shoehorned, and controversial claimant to that position), to the less unified Alliance leveling experience, to more philosophical assertions from Filara of Terenas concerning early Horde differences continuing to exercise an influence to this day. In classic WoW, Filara observes, the Horde population on each server was typically small and outgunned. People knew each other, could network easily, banded together againt superior Alliance numbers in world PvP, and -- when battlegrounds became available -- could typically get games significantly faster than their Alliance counterparts. Add the numbers up and it's easy to see how faction difference became part of WoW's conventional wisdom.

What interests me more is how rarely we see this question come up nowadays. During and shortly after classic WoW, comparison of the two factions was both inevitable and the source of major fights on the forums. Despite being outnumbered on the vast majority of servers, Horde routinely encountered more battleground success -- or so went the popular theory. As BC went on and the Alliance slowly lost a bit (though by no means all) of its population advantage thanks (let's be perfectly honest here) to the influx of Blood Elves to the Horde, it's possible that some of both factions' finer "cultural" distinctions have been somewhat eroded, if they ever existed at all.

Around Azeroth: A giant bug - Thu, 21 May 2009 10:00:00 ESTRyük of <Order of Valtiel> on Ravencrest writes in about a bug he and his guildmates experienced post-patch. "We had cleared Archavon 10 and the trash to Emalon when a Wintergrasp battle began, kicking us out of the instance. We decided to try and win Wintergrasp so that we could win and, against all odds on our hugely outnumbered server, Horde was victorious! We re-entered VoA to find Emalon and his adds untargetable and unable to react to our presence. So what did we do? Big Emalon Dance Party!?"

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All the action explodes in Ohio as the first leg of Major League Gaming's PC Circuit for 2009 kicks off at the Columbus Convention Center. The tournament is a by-invitation-only format that includes eight of the world's top World of WarcraftArena teams such as SK Gaming, Pandemic, Fnatic, and the lone non-US contingent from Europe, some guys from a small-time guild called Ensidia.

Once again played on HP, the 3v3 tournament will be round robin format with the top four teams advancing to a double elimination Championship bracket. Players will have access to Deadly Gladiator and Tier 7.5 gear over three days of competitive gaming, with over $15,000 worth of prizes at stake. All games will be streamed live over at GotFrag TV as well as MMO Champion, with commentary by experienced shoutcasters Vansili, Vhell, and igoaf.

Participants will accumulate Pro Circuit ranking points and get a chance to advance to the 2009 MLG Championship at the end of the year. It promises to be another exciting tournament, although it looks like MLG will still be using the Ring of Valor so there'll probably be a few laughs, as well. MLG Columbus will run from June 5 through 7.

I haven't been following the comic book super closely, but it looks like the comic's timeline has just now caught up to the Scourge invasion. It's still fun to see what was going on then, from the big throwdown (that we never actually got to see in-game) on the docks to the other big throwdown between Thrall and Garrosh. Give it a look and if you like it, keep an eye out for the new comic book issue, which should be in stores right now.

Ah, Wintergrasp. The first 'fun' PvP content I've ever come across in-game. The first time I found myself in the Keep, around level 75, I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. All I knew for sure was that there were monsters outside the gates who smelled prime, young night elf and wanted my blood. Then a friend showed me how to max out my mining in an hour thanks to all the lovely nodes of saronite and titanium and I started to like the place more. I really got into the zone at 80 and found the battles immense fun and short enough even for my lax attention span.

But, of course, there were problems. The Horde seem to out number us Alliance on my server and they're also a hell of a lot more organised. For them, Wintergrasp isn't just a sport, it's a carefully planned massacre. but, despite the instability, the DCs, the insufferable lag, it was fun. But I was keen to find out if Blizzard had plans to fix the problems so I asked Tom Chilton. He he specifically mentioned the issues of Wintergrasp and that they didn't think that the lag and other issues "was an acceptable play environment situation". So Blizzard did the 'smart' thing -- they nerfed it. Boo.

So readers? What do you think of the weekly quests? Do you think nerfing Wintergrasp was the way to go? Now you only have to do them once every seven days, do you think you will do the battles less? Are you pleased you now get more Shards for the quests? Can't care less? Tell us!